The Holloways – So This Is Great Britian
Summer is coming to an end and all that we have to remind us of it is a fading tan, and no money. that was until The Holloways came along. Formed in 2004 the London foursome have been gigging like no bodies business creating a loyal fan base and great expectations for their debut album.
The album title comes from the opening track, “so this is great Britain” whether the band are cleverly self referencing themselves or not is unclear, but great Britain is certainly becoming an array of post pubescent teens making pop guitar music. The semi working class accents and colloquiel terms such as “jar” (pint) fail to make this song edgy. From the opening electric guitar bar of god save the queen, this album is as obvious and clich?s the bar it opens with. T
How ever it is good fun and takes the frost bite out of the fact we are going into winter. Alfie Jacksons harmonica on tracks like “two left feet” bring an element of country while Rob Skippers ska riffs bring an element of jumping cool and pay homage to the ska bands of the 80′s who also tried to bring about political change via music, the specials being the most obvious. How ever the special had something to say, this band doesn’t.
The main flaw in this band is that there is nothing new. Since the Libertine’s came about there has been a spate of English garage bands, The Automatic, Babyshambles, The Kooks and many many more. Yes this band are fun and yes every one’s going to know who they are because the NME will talk about them. But this album has nothing to offer other than an amalgamation of every thing you heard on XFM in the last few months.
By Gabriel Larmour
